Grainne Barry Wallace

Ciúnas

This project was awarded membership to the International Society of Typographic Designers (ISTD). This book is a response to the ISTD -brief entitled Taboo. The Magdalene Laundries in Ireland was chosen to represent the subject of ‘Taboo’. The title of this project is ‘Ciúnas’, which is the Irish word for Silence. The definition of Taboo is as follows; “a social or religious custom prohibiting or restricting a particular practice or forbidding association with a particular person, place, or thing.” Religious oppression is an inherent part of Ireland’s history. The society and the government were compliant towards the rulings of the Catholic Church. Through this compliancy and oppression a silence was created. This book uses typography and appropriate materials to illustrate the silence that befell the women of a Church-Run state.